More than 20 Kurds were killed in clashes with Turkish forces during Kurdish New Year demonstrations Saturday, ushering in what diplomats expect to be a year of unprecedented violence in southeast Turkey. At least one policeman was also killed in clashes that broke out when Kurdish crowds staged nationalist marches in defiance of state bans in the towns of Sirnak and Cizre near Turkey's frontier with Iraq. "They have poisoned the holiday.

When Ferhat first set eyes on Edibe at a training camp in the mountains separating Turkey and Iraq, it was, he said, "as if a bullet had pierced my heart and love gushed forth like a waterfall." The woman at his side smiled shyly and said, "I knew immediately that he was the one." But romance was forbidden among the Marxist guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers Party as decadent bourgeois self-indulgence.

During his furtive zigzagging across Europe and Africa recently, Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan railed about the "injustice" that he was desperate to avoid--capture and trial by the Turks. Yes, his guerrillas had killed soldiers and unarmed civilians, he admitted, but blaming only him would obscure the causes of the struggle for Kurdish self-rule. "By accusing me, they're trying to cover up crimes of the state," Ocalan said in a December interview in Rome.

Iraqi Kurdish officials confirmed Sunday that at least 500 Turkish troops have pushed 100 miles into northern Iraq in their deepest incursion into the Kurdish-controlled enclave in 15 years of war against Kurdish separatists. The officials described the move as preparation for a major offensive against about 2,500 rebels belonging to the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, who are dug in along a 25-mile-long swath of mountainous territory on the Iran-Iraq border.

Kurds should refrain from attacks in Europe but have little choice but to resort to violence in Turkey, a Kurdish rebel spokeswoman said Friday. Five people were killed and eight injured in attacks late Thursday throughout Turkey. Mizgin Sen, the spokeswoman for the rebels in Europe, could not confirm whether the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, carried out the attacks, but she added that "it wouldn't be surprising" if the group's fighters were behind them.

Turkey's Kurdish rebels have taken steps toward choosing a new leader to replace jailed chief Abdullah Ocalan, a Turkish newspaper said Wednesday. Milliyet said a meeting of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, appointed a senior commander, Cemil Bayik, as the guerrillas' "high authority." Ocalan, who founded the Kurdish rebel movement and led its armed campaign for 14 years, was seized in Kenya last month and flown to Turkey for trial on treason charges.

Iraqi Kurdish officials confirmed Sunday that at least 500 Turkish troops have pushed 100 miles into northern Iraq in their deepest incursion into the Kurdish-controlled enclave in 15 years of war against Kurdish separatists. The officials described the move as preparation for a major offensive against about 2,500 rebels belonging to the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, who are dug in along a 25-mile-long swath of mountainous territory on the Iran-Iraq border.

At least 1,000 Turkish soldiers crossed into northern Iraq, apparently starting their yearly spring campaign against Kurdish rebel hide-outs there, military sources said Saturday. Over the last three days, soldiers have gone three miles into Iraqi territory from the provinces of Hakkari and Sirnak in southeastern Turkey, sources said.

The country's chief prosecutor Friday demanded closure of the main Kurdish political party, saying he has "irrefutable proof" that it is a front for Kurdish rebels fighting for self-rule in Turkey's southeast. Kurdish politicians and Western diplomats said the move, three months before a general election, could undermine Turkey's fragile democracy and drive more Kurds to take up arms.

Police arrested 30 demonstrators in Brussels during a protest by Turkish immigrants over Italy's rejection of a Turkish arrest warrant for Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan. "There were 30 arrests, 28 for breach of the peace, one for possession of an illegal weapon and one for possession of drugs," a police spokesman said.

About 10,000 Turkish troops have crossed into northern Iraq and are preparing to battle Kurdish rebels, officials and reports said Saturday. The troops were stationed near the city of Sulaymaniyah, more than 100 miles into Iraqi territory, Turkey's daily Hurriyet said. Hurriyet and Belgium-based Kurdish Medya TV said the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, or PUK, which controls the area around Sulaymaniyah, had asked Turkey to send troops to help fight Kurdish rebels in the region.

An outlawed leftist group claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on an Istanbul police station that killed a police officer and warned that it was ready to strike again. In a statement faxed to the Associated Press, the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front said group member Guntekin Koc, 23, detonated bombs in the police station's cafeteria Wednesday, killing himself and a policeman and injuring seven others.

The head of Turkey's National Intelligence Agency, or MIN, said in remarks published Tuesday that it would be against Turkish interests to hang Kurdish rebel chief Abdullah Ocalan, who was sentenced to death last year for treason. In an unprecedented briefing with selected national newspapers, Senkal Atasagun also said he is in favor of ending a ban on Kurdish-language broadcasting and of setting up a state-controlled television channel in Kurdish.

At least 1,000 Turkish soldiers crossed into northern Iraq, apparently starting their yearly spring campaign against Kurdish rebel hide-outs there, military sources said Saturday. Over the last three days, soldiers have gone three miles into Iraqi territory from the provinces of Hakkari and Sirnak in southeastern Turkey, sources said.

"Happy is he who is a Turk," the nationalist slogan etched across bleak hillsides and grim police stations in this largely Kurdish province, is being replaced by a more inclusive motto: "This country belongs to us all." Buoyed by military successes against Kurdish separatists and the capture last year of their elusive leader, Abdullah Ocalan, the Turkish government has launched a campaign to win the hearts and minds of the country's alienated Kurdish minority.

Turkey's highest appeals court Thursday upheld the death sentence for Kurdish guerrilla leader Abdullah Ocalan, prompting new warnings from the West that his execution by hanging would undermine the country's bid for European Union membership. Hundreds of relatives of Turkish soldiers killed while fighting Ocalan's 15-year struggle for Kurdish self-rule hugged each other and whooped for joy outside the courthouse in Ankara, the capital, as the decision was announced.

A Turkish court jailed the leadership of the country's main Kurdish party, alleging that they aided separatist rebels. An Ankara court convicted 31 leading members of the People's Democratic Party and sentenced them to between 4 1/2 and six years in prison. But a youth who tore down a Turkish flag at a party congress last year was sentenced to 22 1/2 years in jail.

Turkish troops, taking advantage of a spring thaw and a unilateral cease-fire by Kurdish rebels, launched a large-scale offensive that killed 102 rebels and 27 soldiers in three days, authorities reported. The casualties from the battles in the country's southeast were the highest since the rebels declared a truce in December. At that time, rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan ordered his forces not to launch raids but said they would fight back if attacked.

Thousands of Turkish troops backed by helicopter gunships killed 40 Kurdish rebels during a weeklong offensive in northern Iraq, according to a Turkish news report. Private NTV television said the troops withdrew early Saturday but gave few other details. Turkey frequently crosses into neighboring Iraq, where rebels belonging to the Kurdistan Workers Party maintain bases. Meanwhile, the rebels claimed to have killed 18 Turkish soldiers in an attack in southeastern Turkey.

A suicide bomber flashed the "V" for victory sign before detonating bombs strapped to her body outside a Turkish police station, killing herself and injuring 17 others. It was the third major attack blamed on guerrillas since a Turkish court sentenced Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan to death June 29 for treason and separatism. Police said three civilians and 14 officers were hurt in the attack in the southern city of Adana. The assailant was identified as Rusen Tabanci, 19.